A Walker in the Suburbs

"When everything else has gone from my brain ... what will be left, I believe, is topology: the dreaming memory of land as it lay this way and that."
Annie Dillard

Friday, July 29, 2016

Longer Than Planned

Yesterday's walk was a lunchtime getaway, and a longer one than planned. I took off down 23rd Street to Arlington Ridge Road, a thoroughfare I'd read about and wanted to explore. It is indeed a ridge road, and getting to it was a bit of a hike.

But it was winding and green and as I glanced up the hills at the rambling mansions, I thought about the history of it all, going all the way back to the Custis family.

As my thoughts were wandering, my feet were flying, and before I knew it I was at Four Mile Run, a full mile or more away from where I meant to end up.

It was 90+ degrees, my feet were tired and my face was flushed, but there was nothing to do but push on in that way that's all too familiar, the way known to all walkers who've been so enthralled going in one direction that they fail to think about how long it will take them to get back.

Twenty minutes later, I was glad to see the Crystal City high rises swing into view. And the super-chilled office air was for once just right.

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Old School

Another morning walk, this time noticing who has those little plastic-wrapped packages at the end of their driveways every morning. Neighbors on either side and across the street. Not the quorum it used to be but a small and mighty band.

It's our daily delivery of dead tree pulp, finely ground and rolled and imprinted with the latest follies of humankind.

Yes, we could scan the news on our iPads, iPhones or laptops. We could flip on the car radio and hear about the scandals and theories in the secure bubble of our automobiles. We could curl up in an easy chair with a cup of milky sweet Earl Gray and watch CNN. Or we could get the news (or what algorithms have deigned would delight us) from a Facebook feed.

On the other hand ... we could unwrap the newspaper from its protective sheath, take it on the bus with us. We could dive into it as if into a cool, slow-moving stream. Could let the information and opinions it offers take us in directions we never could have imagined. Could wind up informed and inspired and enraged and smeared with ink.

But that's only if we're old school. Which so few of us are anymore. Hard copy? Dead trees? You betcha. I'm old school and proud. You'll have to pry my print paper out of my cold, dead hands.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Half Mast

On my walk this morning I noticed, as I often do, the flagpole on the corner. There are several flagpoles on our street, but this is the most prominent, the most well lit.

What I noticed today is not just that the flag is once again at half mast. It's been half mast most of the summer. But it's that the sunflowers planted around the pole are now almost as tall as the flag.

I'm not sure what this says about patriotism, the world's madness and the healing power of nature. But I am sure that the flowers will grow taller, perhaps overtaking the flag. And I'm sure that they will turn their faces toward the sun, will seek the light.

Monday, July 25, 2016

Watch the Midwives

When I was expecting each of my babies, especially the first, I was physiologically incapable of watching any scene of childbirth in a movie or television show without shedding a tear or two. I was not an especially weepy pregnant woman, but there was something about the magic of it all that moved me every time. Matter of fact, there still is.

So imagine a TV program that features at least one and maybe more scenes of childbirth in each episode. It's a "two hanky" affair if ever there was one.

But there's more to the British drama "Call the Midwife" than a good cry. Set in the East End of London during the postwar baby boom, the show (based on the memoir of real life midwife Jenny Worth) follows the adventures of a team of nurse midwives (some of them nuns) based in the convent Nonatus House. It's a cast of lovable characters serving poor women who have more children than they know what to do with but who are treated tenderly and with great compassion.

There is no malpractice insurance, no planned Caesarians. The midwives take it all as it comes, encouraging the mothers through difficult labors that would be treated in an operating room these days. And there are plenty of historical back stories, too — polio makes an appearance, as do thalidomide babies.

But what makes the show so special is its big heart, its voice-overs at start and finish (done by Vanessa Redgrave), its frequent insistence that it's really all about love.

There is something so old-fashioned and inspiring and true about the show that watching it makes me feel like a slightly different (enlarged? more tolerant?) person. Call the Midwife? For me, it's Watch the Midwives.

Friday, July 22, 2016

Happy Jeweleye

A jewel of a day to many would be one with pleasant temps and low humidity, a puffy-cloud, blue-sky day. Today is not like that. It is muggy and hot. The insects are singing their fevered chorus and the birds are chirping listlessly in the background.

But to me it's a jewel of a July day. Perfect in its very July-ness. Yes, there are heat warnings. But this is summer: It's supposed to be hot. And yes, we move more slowly now, but isn't that one of summer's great gifts, that it's andante instead of allegro?

So here's to summer, to the heat and humidity, even the torpor. Happy Jeweleye!

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Dew Point

The technical definition of dew point is the temperature to which air must be cooled in order to reach saturation. My weather sources tell me that dew point is a more accurate measure of moisture in the air than relative humidity. A dew point of 60 is comfortable; a dew point of 70 is not.

But I like the sounds of the words, both alone and together. Dew. Point. Dew point.

And I like the images they connote: A summer lawn glistening with moisture. A summer evening filled with cricket and katydid song. A summer morning dash in my nightgown for the newspaper. It's covered with moisture. I shake off the plastic bag before pulling out the paper to read.

Before I'm saturated with the day, I'm saturated with the dew. That's my dew point.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Heavenly Surprises

Twice within 12 hours I've been surprised by heavenly bodies. Well, not completely surprised. I knew each time that there was a sun or a moon in the sky. But surprised in that I wasn't expecting to glimpse them when I did, and that perhaps because of this — or perhaps not — I was swept away.

Last night I walked in perfect air, perfect temperature, a glorious midsummer evening. I admired the light as I walked east, thought about how fetchingly it struck the great old oaks and maples, how beautifully it bathed our neighborhood.

But when I reached the other end of Folkstone, I caught my breath. There was the sun, the source of all this beauty. Even though I'd been walking in its light the whole way I'd somehow forgotten. And there it was, the setting sun.

This morning it was the moon that surprised me. I hadn't realized it was almost full, and still up, when I took my early walk. Once again, a turn to the west took my breath away. The globe was suspended in a sky of pale blue, centered between banks of trees. A spectacular sight. A morning treat.

It is, perhaps, a sign of my discombobulation, these heavenly surprises. But maybe not. Maybe it's just natural beauty at work.

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Trousseau

On Sunday I spirited Suzanne away for a few hours of shopping. She bought a handmade wedding gown in Africa, but since then she's bought little else, so we looked for dresses, tops, slacks — not just attire for the rehearsal dinner and other parties but outfits she can wear to work, too.

It's such a lovely, old-fashioned tradition, collecting pretty new things to take into your new life. I remember the dresses Mom bought me, her use of the word "trousseau," which seemed old-fashioned even then.

When I stood in the dressing room with Suzanne I felt Mom's presence more than usual. I thought of all the times we were in dressing rooms together, laughing, sighing, asking each other, "How do I look?"

As Suzanne checked the mirror for length and fit, I kept thinking of her younger self running in the backyard, a trail of curls bobbing in the breeze, then years later sprinting up a hill during a cross-country meet.

But every memory, every glance, was doubled, because with each memory I could feel Mom's gaze in mine. I reminded myself that I'm the old(er) woman now. That it's Suzanne's trousseau we were shopping for, that in what seems like no time a lifetime has passed.

Monday, July 18, 2016

A Summer in Moments

This morning I caught a glimpse of two birds in flight. It was impossible to know their type, only that they were silvered on the wing and had a radiance most possible when the sun is low in the sky.

Here we are in high summer, a summer of discontent and national tragedies, a summer when it's easy to feel befuddled and confused. There's hardly time to absorb one reality before another asserts itself.

For me, summer has always been a time of healing. It must go back to long-ago school vacations. Summer was a time when we could get back to ourselves. Long books, late nights, deep pools — of water and of thought.

Now summer is over in the blink of an eye. It must exist in moments. Biting into the season's first peach. Feeling warm sand between the toes. Watching late light slant through the poplars. Or seeing two birds in flight, with silver on their wings.

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Morning Walk, Evening Prayer

Metro closures have one silver lining. They push people out onto the streets where they might actually ... walk!

That's what I did this morning, hoofing it from Pentagon City to Crystal City — which is not the metropolis-to-metropolis trek that it sounds like but a mile-long stroll.

It was the best way to start a day, even in this heat and humidity. I plugged in my earbuds and took off. I passed the bustle of Metro, crowds surging on and off of shuttle buses, then turned left on 15th Street, seeking shade wherever I found it.

In my ears, "When at Night I Go to Sleep," also known as "The Evening Prayer" or "Abendsegen" in German, a lovely melody from "Hansel and Gretel" by Engelbert Humperdinck. For some reason I played this melody when I got off Metro a stop earlier in the city and walked from Chinatown to the Law Center. So it has become my go-to walking-to-work piece.

And it is blissful, calming music. Full and rich, perfect for tuning out the world while at the same time plunging into it. I arrived physically wilted but mentally charged. Maybe I'll get off a stop early more often.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Endangered Fireflies

Preserve the magic — that's what I took away from a recent Washington Postarticle on the declining population of fireflies in our heavily developed cities and suburbs.

Fireflies — or lightning bugs, as I grew up hearing them called — are harmed by pesticides and insecticides. If you're spraying for mosquitoes, you're getting rid of fireflies too. The greatest threat they face is the loss of their habitats, as fields and wetlands fall to the bulldozer and crane.

Seems like I see fewer and fewer flickers every summer. Though it's tempting to say it's part of growing up and growing older, losing the wonder and all of that, this article helped me realize that it's not just in my head.

There really are fewer of these precious, ephemeral creatures in our lives. But we can bring them back — not by clapping hands but by living more lightly on the land.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Savoring the Summer

I join the morning as it moves slowly over the drowsy
suburbs of Washington. I see it clamber up a bank of clouds and shimmer as violet curtains part to make way for the sun. The sunrise is so vivid that it colors even the dark leaves of the shaded maples.

I walk without earphones, listening instead to the avian chorus. Those birds; they always know what to do, rising early to claim the day.

It was still dusk when I left the house. Bats darted through the air, foraging for last-minute snacks. A slow-moving skunk lumbered across the road. Squirrels scampered up trees, chattering to their own.

Last night's walk took me from daylight to darkness; today’s
from darkness to daylight. I think about how lucky I am to see one day out and another day in,
to savor the summer in its passage.

Friday, July 8, 2016

Second City

It's not a compliment, and Chicago has seldom taken it as one. Sure, the name has come to mean the comedy troupe not a comedic trope, but still ... the City of Big Shoulders doesn't like to come in second in any way.

I learned on last Monday's boat tour, though, that Chicago was first called the "Second City" in 1890, when it came in second to Philadelphia in U.S. population.

That the metropolis had grown so quickly after the devastating fire of 1871 — which killed 300 people, scorched 2,000 acres and left a third of the city's population homeless — made it a good kind of "second city." But subsequent references have left a lot to be desired.

Today I travel to New York for an overnight stay. It will be my second city of the week. So there you go, Chicago. For me, for this week (and this week only), you're the First City. And New York, sorry, you're the Second.

Thursday, July 7, 2016

Back to Vienna

A brief lull for Orange Line riders in Metro's Safe Track program (I can't believe we're all calling it that! what a triumph of marketing?) allows me to come and go through Vienna. I was almost going to say "my beloved Vienna."

Maybe that's a bit too strong, but such is the lure of the familiar and comfortable that I almost thought of it that way this morning. There is the familiar parking garage, open and above-ground unlike the one at Wiehle-Reston. There is the bridge over 66, the newspaper hawkers, the buses roaring to their bays.

I got to take the morning drive along Vale and Hunter Mill Roads, the road muggy and shaggy with summer, the turns a delight.

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Toddlin' Town

Chicago, goes the song, is a "toddlin' town." And when I was there last weekend, those words kept buzzing through my brain. I can remember Frank Sinatra singing them. I can remember my dad singing them.

Dad loved Chicago, would come up twice a year to the Merchandise Mart, where he'd peddle new rattan furniture lines. He stayed in the Palmer House, and in between clients would slip out to browse in bargain basement record bins. He came back to Lexington with a whiff of the faraway, bringing tales of this windy city on a lake so big you couldn't see the other side.

"Bet your bottom dollar, you'll lose your blues in Chicago ... the town that Billy Sunday could not shut down. ... On State Street, that great street, I've just got to say, they do things they don't do on Broadway. ... I had the time, the time of my life. I saw a man who danced with his wife, in Chicago, Chicago my home town."

Those lyrics are from memory mind you. Brought to the fore by a whirlwind weekend in a place I used to call home.

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Chicago River Tour

I didn't think much about the Chicago River when I lived here decades ago. I paid attention to it on St. Patrick's Day, when it was dyed kelly green, but otherwise it was more of an embarrassment than anything else.

This began to change around the time I left. There was a clean-up-the-river campaign. There were new buildings by premier architects. And there was the river walk, built to rival San Antonio's — which it certainly does.

There were so many facts in yesterday's architectural river tour that I can only remember a fraction of them. We saw the tallest building designed by a woman and learned of a building that could not support its marble facade and was refaced with granite.

We saw the Merchandise Mart, Navy Pier and Sears (now Willis) Tower. We marveled at the reflective glass that gave us a picture of the buildings behind us.

Most of all, we (or at least I) caught our breath at the beauty of it all, at the majesty of the great city spread out before us, all glittering water and glass.

Monday, July 4, 2016

Bunting!

A walk through the streets of Hinsdale, a leafy suburb west of Chicago, found me with a camera in hand snapping photos of gardens and porches — and bunting. It's such a festive and old-fashioned way to celebrate the Fourth.

It's not something I see as much of around home, perhaps because it doesn't lend itself to center-hall colonials or perhaps because proximity to the seat of government has worn our patriotism thin!

Whatever the case, I've enjoyed the festoons and the graceful draping of the red, white and blue. And though bunting is in shorter supply today in the city, there are still legions of flags flying, and there will, I'm sure, be ample seasonal excitement here in Chicago. It is, after all, the day for it.

But I have a hunch that when the dust settles it's the bunting I'll remember most — the small, personal celebrations of hearth and home.

About Me

I’m a writer and editor, the author of "Parents Who Think Too Much" and a freelancer published everywhere from the "New York Times" to "Woman’s Day." I’ve been scribbling my thoughts in one tattered notebook or another for most of my life, but this blog is the first time I’ve gone public. I'm glad you've landed here, and I hope you visit often.